THRACE, Abdera. Circa 411-385 BC. AR Half-Stater (19mm, 6.03 gm). Struck 411 BC. Orchamos, magistrate. Griffin seated left raising paw;
ABDH-RIT-EWN around / Lion standing right in linear square;
EP O-R-XAM-O around. May Group LXXXIX (unlisted dies); BMC Thrace pg. 70, 36; SNG Copenhagen -; Boston MFA 763. Toned, good VF, light die rust. Very rare Peloponnesian War issue; Thracian revolt against Athens.
In 411 BC, during the middle of the Peloponnesian War, the cities of Thrace rose in revolt against their Athenian overlords. For Abdera this was a radical change of heart, for at the beginning of the war its leaders had been in the forefront of attempts to unite Thrace, Macedon, and Athens in the common cause. However, twenty years of conflict and increasing Athenian interference in local affairs lead the cities of Thrace to finally seek a way out of the war. Abdera proclaimed its support of this revolt through the means of a new coin type. The magistrate Orchamos introduced a silver half-stater on the Aeginetan weight standard, replacing coins based on the Thraco-Macedonian standard, which seemed to tie Abdera’s fate to the Peloponnesian foes of Athens. In a subtle detail of its new autonomy, the old city ethnic, abbreviated Abdh. on all of the earlier coinage, was replaced with the full city name, Abdera. The lion also certainly represented Abdera's fierce resolve to remain free! Even at this stage of the war, though, Athens remained strong enough to put down the revolt by 407 BC. The types and denomination of the coins of Orchamos are unique in the Abderan series, and are one of the few Greek coin types that can be linked to a specific historical event.
